New Mexico Trivia & Tidbits - Page 10

Looking for New Mexico trivia? Try our list New Mexico little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Built in 1892, the Eklund Hotel in Clayton (pop. 2,524) still features the elaborately carved bar that Swedish immigrant Carl Eklund first introduced in 1894, when he created a saloon out of what had been a store. It’s reported that he won the bar in a poker game, playing with a borrowed $10 stake. The hotel was among the town’s first buildings to get plumbing, steam heat, electricity and public telephones.

first appeared: 8/15/2004

As one of the largest known natural deposits of carbon dioxide gas, the Bravo Dome field in northeastern New Mexico covers about 1 million acres. The gas, found more than 1,900 feet below the Earth’s surface, is used to enhance oil recovery and produce dry ice.

first appeared: 8/8/2004

Artist Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) found inspiration in the landscape of northern New Mexico and bought two properties there: a house at Ghost Ranch in 1940 and another in nearby Abiquiu, northwest of Española (pop. 9,688), in 1945. O’Keeffe received the National Medal of Arts in 1985.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

With more than 140 paintings, watercolors, pastels and sculptures, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe houses the largest public collection of O’Keeffe’s work. The museum was founded by John and Anne Marion, part-time residents of Santa Fe, and opened in 1997. More than 1 million people visited in its first four years.

first appeared: 8/1/2004

Visitors can take home up to 15 pounds of rocks from Rockhound State Park near Deming (pop. 14,116). Agates, quartz crystals, silica minerals, chalcedony and common opals can be found in the 1,100-acre park, which is located on the western slope of the Little Florida Mountains.

first appeared: 7/25/2004

Mesilla (pop. 2,180) was one of the stops on the Butterfield Stage Route, which operated between St. Louis, Mo., and San Francisco, Calif., beginning in 1858. The 2,800-mile trip took 25 days, with the stagecoaches traveling 24 hours a day, stopping only to change horses or mules. Although mail was the priority, passengers could get a ride for $200.

first appeared: 7/18/2004

Soldiers from Albuquerque built the one-story, flat-roofed adobe buildings of Fort Selden in 1865 as a territorial fort to protect travelers and settlers. The fort, on the Rio Grande near Radium Springs (pop. 1,518), was decommissioned in 1891 and became a state monument in 1974.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

The Fort Selden site had previously been used as an ancient Indian campground. In the mid-1880s, it was home to a young Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur, while his father served there as commanding officer.

first appeared: 7/11/2004

With almost 200 head of alpaca and 1,100 acres, Victory Ranch in Mora County (pop. 5,180) is one of the Southwest’s largest alpaca ranches. The ranch also features a fiber arts school that teaches techniques such as spinning alpaca fiber, which is known for its strength and softness.

first appeared: 6/27/2004

The Southwest’s oldest zoo is the Alameda Park Zoo in Alamogordo (pop. 35,582). It was established in 1898 with a small collection of waterfowl and deer as a pastime for railway travelers waiting while steam locomotives were refueled. Today, the seven-acre zoo features almost 300 animals that represent 90 different species.

first appeared: 6/20/2004

Construction began on the Vietnam Veterans National Memorial near Angel Fire (pop. 1,048) in 1968, after Marine Lt. David Westphall was killed in an ambush in Vietnam. Westphall’s parents used his military life insurance payout to start the memorial, which includes a chapel with curving walls that soar up to 50 feet high. Originally dedicated in 1971, the site now includes a 6,000-square-foot visitor’s center, and is on its way to becoming a new state park.

first appeared: 6/13/2004

Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-1971), the first person of color to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1950), lived in Albuquerque for two years in the mid-1910s. After earning his master’s and doctoral degrees at Harvard University, he went on to a distinguished United Nations career, mediating conflicts in locations such as Palestine, Egypt, Kashmir and Yemen.

first appeared: 6/6/2004

First documented around 1936, the Mystery Stone found at the base of Hidden Mountain west of Los Lunas (pop. 10,034) bears a carved inscription in a language that looks like ancient Phoenician. The inscription’s origins are unknown, but have variously been called an ancient version of the Ten Commandments, a 2,500-year-old story from a Greek explorer, the description of a lost treasure and a 20th-century hoax.

first appeared: 5/30/2004

Frijoles Canyon at Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos (pop. 11,909) is the result of a creek cutting through soft volcanic-ash rock known as tuff, which was created during volcanic eruptions a million years ago.

first appeared: 5/23/2004

Founded in 1300, the Pueblo of Sandia (pop. 4,414)—which covers 22,877 acres near Albuquerque—gained its name from the Spanish word for watermelon when the explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado visited in the 16th century. Various explanations for the name’s origin exist, including the colors that the nearby Sandia Mountains turn at sunset, the watermelon shape of the mountains, and the Spanish mistaking the local squash for watermelons.

first appeared: 5/16/2004

When Ernest Martinez bought the Tio Vivo, or “lively uncle,” carousel for $90 in 1937 for the Lions Club in Taos (pop. 4,700), the merry-go-round was already reported to be a century old. The Lions Club still owns the carousel, which boasts hand-carved pine and ash horses.

first appeared: 5/9/2004

Angel Fire Resort near the village of Angel Fire (pop. 1,048) is home to the Shovel Racing Championships, an annual event in which shovels are used as sleds to race down snowy slopes. Although stories exist of early miners, ski lift operators and hill workers choosing shovels as a fast way down the mountain, official races didn’t begin until 1974. Today, race classes range from off-the-shelf shovels to high-tech modified versions, with speed records from 72 to 79 mph.

first appeared: 5/2/2004

People first inhabited the Blackwater Draw site north of Portales (pop. 11,131) about 13,300 years ago, when mammoths, ancient bison and saber-tooth cats were part of the landscape. First excavated in 1932 and purchased by Eastern New Mexico University in 1978, the 157-acre archeological site has revealed artifacts such as spear points and tools, along with wells that are the New World’s earliest known water control system.

first appeared: 4/25/2004

New Mexico’s official fossil is the Coelophysis, a 3-foot-tall, 10-foot-long meat-eating dinosaur. A large number of Coelophysis fossils have been found at the Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico.

first appeared: 4/18/2004

The Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos is the site of many ancient ruins, including Pueblo Indian dwellings dating to the 12th century. The monument was named for Adolph Bandelier, a 19th-century anthropologist.

first appeared: 4/11/2004

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